That’s right… this post is going to be about typing… as in on a keyboard. And even just typing that one word – typing – has caused me some consternation, because… well the keyboards over here are different.
Not too different, not different enough that you have to relearn to type, but enough that it messes with your head and frustrates you just enough to be annoying.
Z and Y
These two babies are swapped around. As an accomplished touch-typer, I spent the first two weeks at work exclaiming in frustration about every 3 minutes, when I accidentally typed one or the other. And then when I came home and used my Australian-computer, the problem reverses itself.
-/?&” etc
These are all very hard to find on the German keyboard. Some are switched, some are changed… I find myself constantly scanning the keyboard trying to work out where they live.
AltGr
I always had to deal with this when travelling in Europe, but now I deal with it daily. It’s basically another ‘shift’ or ‘control’ that gives you access to more shortcuts. But finding the @ is extremely difficult at first. If you’ve ever travelled, you might have experienced the frustration as you’re sitting in an internet café, paying by the second for internet, and you can’t even log into your email because you can’t find the @.
But slowly, I’m retraining my fingers to get to know two keyboards… and yes, I realise I could change my settings to one or the other permanently so I don’t get confused… but somehow I want my fingers to remember Australian… and learn German… so I’ll just keep plodding along.
an aussie in austria 